Billy Ray: Trying to Mend Family

After telling PEOPLE in its new issue that fame “destroyed my family” – and revealing in another interview he was “scared” for daughter Miley, 18, – the country star says he’s looking inward.

“It is very important to me to work on mending my family right now,” Cyrus, 49, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive statement.
Calling his recent comments “explosive, and unintentionally so,” Cyrus says, “My family is the most important thing I have, and we are working together to make sure our future is stronger and healthier.”

Cyrus, who had retreated to his Tennessee farm and filed for divorce last fall, has been lately spending time in Los Angeles with wife Tish, 43, and youngest daughter Noah, 11.

“It is all a learning process, and we thank everyone for their support and respect of our privacy as we sort through very important family issues,” he says.

For more on Cyrus’s regrets, his hopes to repair his family, and Miley’s reaction to his comments, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday